


Closure

by Theblackdaggers045



Series: Ice spikes and mysteries [1]
Category: DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Race to the wdge
Genre: Berk (How to Train Your Dragon), Crash Landing, Dragon's Edge (How to Train Your Dragon), F/F, F/M, Female Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, I'm Bad At Tagging, Identity Reveal, M/M, Runaway Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 15,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29165028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theblackdaggers045/pseuds/Theblackdaggers045
Summary: When a raid goes wrong, hiccup is stuck on berk, the place she ran from all those years ago. With heather mostly out of commission and toothless's tail fin wrecked, she can't get back to the edge and her friends. When they come to her with some important information they discover the riders might have more in common with the berkians after all and together they might just be able to stop the archipelago's doom....
Relationships: Atali & Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Atali/Minden (How to Train Your Dragon), Camicazi & Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Dagur the Deranged/Eret, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Heather, Mala & Throk (How to Train Your Dragon), Mala/Throk (How to Train Your Dragon)
Series: Ice spikes and mysteries [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2200131
Comments: 8
Kudos: 12





	1. The Raid

**Author's Note:**

> This is the start of something I'll probably never finish. Err, stick around and I'll try my best tho. Feel free to leave angry comments to keep going if you've even slightly want more. Kudos and criticism always welcome

Hiccup, heather, cami, mala, atali and dagur flew in formation above the clouds. Hiccup led the formation, heather and windshear on her left, dagur and sleuther to her right. Camicazi and twilight took up the rear and mala and allura floated just above the formation, with atali below her. 

" _ Alright team. Berk has been sending hunting ships awfully close to our territory, so let's  _ remind  _ them why they didn't mess with us before."  _ Toothless growled in agreement as the six riders broke formation and flew below the clouds. Berk was lit up. They hadn't noticed the dragons yet but when they did they would be in for a fight. Hiccup and Heather paired up, heading for the weapon storage while the other riders went for the newly assembled fleet. Hiccup saw allura put Amber around one of the catapult towers, locking it in place. Cami and twilight descended on the fleet, torching it with a tornado of flame. 

_ "There toothless!"  _ Hiccup pointed and toothless fired a bolt of plasma at the building. Heather scorched it again as she flew behind him.

" _ Nice shot bud." _ Hiccup said and gave heather a thumbs up. She pulled away and hiccup went toward the arena. Toothless landed on the metal roof and hopped from bar to bar and hitting the floor with a final leap.

" _ Alright bud you know the drill-" _ she started.

" _ Yeah, yeah, yeah cover you so you don't die I know."  _ He grumbled.

" _ Geez cranky today or what. " _ Hiccup grinned and drew inferno, already running toward the gate. She pulled the lever to open the arena door and sprinted in. 

"Finally!" A voice yelled. She turned around and found herself face to face with Snotlout.

"A chance to face a dragon rider." 

Hiccup sighed and started opening the doors. A stormcutter burst out into the arena, eyes full of panic. 

Snotlout swore and dived to the side as it barreled out, leaving the route out exposed for the other dragons.

Hiccup sprinted out after them.

"My advice snot? Stand your ground next time." She offered in Norse as she smacked the hilt of inferno down on his head.

" _ Hiccup!" _ She heard toothless shriek in fear. She spotted him under attack by the rest of Astrid's warriors, Stoick and gobber. The dragon was firing blast after blast but the six people had him encircled.

She snarled in fury and tore into the fray, shoving tuffnut away and planting a foot on Fishlegs's chest sending him reeling back into tuff. The four remaining warriors turned to her. She sidestepped gobbers axe and stomped her prosthetic on ruff's toes. Astrid yelled a war cry and sliced across horizontally which she dodged and then countered, catching the edge of the girl's axe with inferno and flinging it away. Astrid stood gobsmacked for a second and hiccup used that to send a heavy punch to her solar plexus. She folded gasping for breath and dry retching. Gobber swung his axe, and she grabbed the handle and kneed him in the stomach. He oof'd and stumbled back, leaving Stoick as the only aggressor. They circled each other for a second before hiccup rushed forward hammering blows against his guard, eventually coming to a stalemate, with the blade of inferno against the wood of his axe. Hiccup released some gas from the end of her sword and use it's ignition to power her elbow into his stomach knocking him to the ground in a daze. Then another viking jumped on her from behind. They both tumbled to the ground and inferno skittered away across the stone floor. Someone else grabbed her. She kicked out and tried to force them away. She pulled her dagger from its sheath in her armour and slashed. Someone who sounded a lot like spitelout swore and she felt the pressure release as someone fell away, but someone else helped pin her down. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw toothless being wrestled to the ground by ten Vikings and she fought harder for a brief moment but there were just too many. She saw Heather and the other riders trying to find a shot to help but hiccup shook her head. She saw heather cry out in rage and then fear as a bola flew out of nowhere and caught windshear, sending the pair to the ground.

" _ No!" _ Hiccup screamed. Then something hit her hard enough to slam her head into the ground. Everything went black….

  
  


Astrid stared at the two riders. They were both unconscious but tied up. They still had their armour and helmets on. The dragons were locked up in the arena, and their weapons were on the table to her left.

_ So why did she feel so… freaked  _

She decided it was their masks. The woman in black had been a tough fighter.

She winced thinking of her stomach. 

_ But she had gotten out the best out of her warriors. _ Snotlout was still unconscious when they found him and Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut had broken bones. Stoick had gotten away with some bruising and gobber was fine afterwards. Spitelout had been slashed by the girl's knife after he had tried to restrain her and it had taken five vikings to hold her down. Whoever this girl was she was good. The other girl was the rider of the razorwhip. She had fallen from her dragon once a bola thrown by her father had hit it. She had fallen a good 20 metres and had broken her arm and wrist, as well as several bones in her shoulder. The night fury looked fine except for the fact it was missing a tail fin. The razorwhip had broken it's front left and rear right legs and left wing. 

Suddenly the girl in black armour sat up, coughed a bit and moaned in pain.

Just as the girl woke up the chief stormed in. Astrid snapped to attention. 

"At ease Astrid. Take off the mask on the one with black armour, the council of elders has some questions to ask."

Astrid relaxed and walked up to the girl in question. She lifted the helmet off.

"That's a no-no." She mumbled hoarsely. 

The girl had auburn hair that was semi-tied back in plaits, though it was still quite messy. She had freckles and piercing green eyes. Two tattoos stretched down from next to her eye to the corners of her mouth. Dried blood was painted under her nose and some came down in a stream from her hair on the left side of the face. Astrid could have sworn they had met before.

"Get up!" She yelled and dragged her to her feet.

Hiccup was frogmarched to the great hall by Astrid and the chief. She was pushed down on a bench by Astrid opposite the council. Astrid noted that the other warriors were there as well.

"Where's spitelout? Not feeling too well?" She quipped. Snotlout leapt to his feet.

"How dare you- get off me tuff!" He ranted as tuffnut held him back.

"The council has some questions." Stoick said coldly.

"Yeah, I'm good-" Hiccup started. 

"You took down seven of my most trusted warriors. Eight, if you include me. It took five of my men to hold you down after you beat us. So i think the first question we should be asking is, Who are you?"

"I'm surprised you don't recognise me. I mean come on. These idiots I'd understand," she gestured with her head, "but you. Gobber. Fishlegs, maybe, he had a good memory."

She stared around at the blank faces. 

"Oh well. My name is hiccup."

The hall suddenly became cacophonous. 

"Let the lass speak!" Gobber yelled over everyone. Everyone grumbled but quieted down. 

"What happened lassie? Where did you go?"

"Untie me and I'll tell you. " Hiccup promised.

Stoick and gobber locked eyes. Stoick nodded. Astrid sliced the ropes holding the girl in place and she immediately took a more relaxed posture. 

"So…" Stoick prompted. 

"On the last raid before you guys set off to find the best again, I said I shot down a night fury-"

"Yeah we remember!" Snotlout mocked. 

Hiccup glared at him.

"Well I did. And I earned his trust. He was injured so I helped him. And I learned the truth about dragons. Speaking of which you better not have harmed toothless or windshear. Or Heather. Because if you have, I'll kill everyone of you."

"That still doesn't explain where you went and where you've been." Stoick pointed out.

"I'm not telling you my life story. Or actually, you don't deserve my life story. "

She snarled. 

Heather awoke in an empty room. She tried to stand.

_ Ouch, ok I'm tied up.  _ She slowly checked her limbs for the main source of pain.

Her legs and feet were fine, so was her right arm, thank the gods. Her left arm however….

She tried to move it again and the pain nearly made her vomit. She reached for her boot and pulled a small knife from it. She used the knife to cut through the ropes binding her to the chair.

She stood shakily and hobbled to the door. A man with a bucket on his head and a hook guarded the door. She slung her left arm around his neck and pressed the knife against it.

"Where is my sister?" She hissed in his ear. 

He screamed in fear and she pressed harder with the knife. 

"Where is she?! And where are our dragons?!" 

"The girl's in the great hall!" He squealed.

"And the dragons?" She demanded.

"In the arena!" He blubbered. She clocked him in the head and dragged him into the room. Using her ropes to the him up.

Her arm ached so bad. Her head throbbed. She walked up the steps to the hall. 

" _ Hey hiccup…." _ Was all she got out before she passed out.

" _ Heather?"  _ Hiccup shot to her feet and regretted it immediately. She sprinted to the door (regretted that too) and slid down to kneel next to Heather.

" _ Heather. Heather, come on, talk to me dumbass."  _ She shouted.

Snotlout stood there unsure of what to do. The girl - _ hiccup _ \- was knelt by the side of the other girl. And she was growling.  _ Growling _ . He was ashamed to admit that he was slightly turned on. 

Hiccup felt her forehead. She was burning up. Taking off the armour on her arm, she saw it was badly swollen and an angry red. It was infected.

" _ You didn't treat her?!"  _ She yelled at the berkians, forgetting to switch back to Norse.

She had to stop her from sleeping.

" _ We're gonna sing a song ok. About going home. You remember the one?" _

Heather gave the smallest of nods.

" _ You can't know up till you've been down _

_ You can't take off tied to the ground"  _ they started, heather's voice quiet.

_ "You can't live days scared of the night _

_ And if it's dark don't mean there's no light _

_ But in the silence, we can make a sound" _

They kept going as hiccup took the bandage and cloth Astrid had thrown her.

_ "Everyone wants _

_ Everyone needs _

_ And we want something to believe _

_ When we get close, everyone knows _

_ Feels like we're going home" _

Heather winced in pain.

" _ Shshhs I know, I know. Come on keep singing." _

She whispered, stroking her hair.

_ "Everyone wants _

_ Everyone dreams _

_ In the end love is all we need _

_ When we get close, everyone knows" _

Hiccup placed the cloth on her forehead to fight the fever.

_ "Feels like we're going home _

_ Feels like we're going home _

_ Feels like we're going home _

_ You can't know love till you know pain _

_ You can't feel pride till you feel shame _

_ Cause love's one thing you can't pretend _

_ And desperation's not your friend _

_ But in the silence, we can make a sound, oh" _

She wound the bandage around the break in the skin, being careful not to make it too tight or loose.

_ "Everyone wants _

_ Everyone needs _

_ And we want something to believe _

_ When we get close, everyone knows _

_ Feels like we're going home _

_ Everyone wants _

_ Everyone dreams _

_ In the end love is all we need _

_ When we get close, everyone knows _

_ Feels like we're going home _

_ Feels like we're going home _

_ Feels like we're going home _

_ When we get close, everybody knows _

_ (Feels like we're going home) _

_ Feels like we're going home" _

By this point hiccup was singing by herself but it didn't matter. Heather had been awake for the important part, now she needed sleep to help the recovery.

_ "(When we get close, everybody knows) _

_ When we get close, everybody knows _

_ (Feels like we're going home) _

_ Feels like we're going home _

_ Everyone wants' _

She held heather's hand as she sang the end of the song.

_ "Everyone needs _

_ And we want something to believe _

_ When we get close, everyone knows _

_ Feels like we're going home _

_ Everyone wants _

_ Everyone dreams _

_ In the end love is all we need _

_ When we get close, everyone knows _

_ Feels like we're going home _

_ Feels like we're going home" _

Once the song had finished she realised just how silent the hall was. No one was moving. The elders sat frozen at their table and Astrid's warriors all stood. 

6 teens stood in the doorway looking at that.

Gustav was at the front, Olga on his left. Bjorn and bjanki and solveig followed them up.

Hiccup paid attention to none of this. She scooped up heather.

"I assume no-one took my old room?" She said to Stoick, who shook his head dumbly. She carried heather out the door and down to the chiefs house.

"Errr…. What just happened.?" A councilman asked.

"Meeting disbanded!" Stoick yelled. "warriors, i expect some practice to be done."

  
  


Astrid sighed. Solvieg was a nice kid, good with an axe and would make a good soldier one day. But she was  **so** exhausting. 

"Warriors! Meet me with your apprentices at the plaza in 10 minutes."

Astrid met snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins, along with their apprentices, Gustav, Olga, Bjorn and Bjanki.

"Who was that woman?" Olga asked timidly.

"That was hiccup" 

The teens jaws dropped.

  
  
  
  
  



	2. Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Capitalisation is all over the plan e and theres probably quite a few spelling errors I'll fix tommorow.

Once she had made sure Heather would be comfortable in her old room, she decided she would get the dragons and go to the cove. It would undoubtedly be nicer there than anywhere the Vikings had them. She wanted to stay here though, and toothless and windshear were stubborn creatures.

Toothless would want to look after her and she wasn't going to leave windshear in the cove overnight. The dragons would probably end up with the girls inevitability but she decided to venture out anyway, maybe find a terror so she could get a message to the other riders. She stroked Heather's hair with her gauntleted fingers and stood, pausing at the door.

She didn't feel right leaving Heather by herself in the room. **her room** she thought. 

_oh well_. _she'll be fine._ She concluded and quietly shut the door. 

she made her way downstairs and out the front door and down to the village plaza.

Astrid's warriors were stood around in a circle with who hiccup assumed were the next group of trainees. She was slightly surprised to see Gustav among them, though she didn't show any emotion as she demanded to know where the dragons were being held.

"O-over in the arena." Fishlegs sputtered.

hiccup rolled her eyes and set off in that direction.

It had taken almost an hour to get to the arena. Two berkians guarded the entrance of the arena but hiccup strode past them and let the dragons out of the cages. Toothless burst out angrily, but calmed when he saw that hiccup was the one who let him out. 

" _Hiccup! You're alive"_ He did his dragon hug.

" _I'm fine"_ she opened the second one and found windshear in the corner of her cell.

" _Stay back"_ windshear hissed. " _Hiccup! Toothless! I hurt my wing."_

Hiccup ran in to look at it. She tested it briefly.

" _It's definitely broken."_ Windshear told her mournfully.

" _Yeah. It's bent the wrong way. I don't think it'll heal for a bit. "_ Hiccup agreed.

"I'm going to go to the cove." She explained.

" _We'll come too. Wait, why are you speaking in Norse?"_

"Because I need practice. I haven't spoken Norse in ages."

It took them forever to get back to the village but when they did, they started down the path to the cove.

Fishlegs watched with a sense of apprehension. A night fury and a razorwhip had just strolled through town.

He watched as they disappeared from sight amongst the thick trees. Ruffnut, tuffnut and snotlout got up and went after, but Fishlegs stopped them.

"Where are you going?"

"After her" they all replied in unison.

"Why?!" 

"Do you trust a prisoner to be roaming around berk with a night fury Fishlegs?"

"....no" he begrudgingly admitted.

So they followed her into the woods.

  
  


When they found her she was down in the cove. They stayed at the edge and watched as she seemed to have a conversation with the dragons.

"It's bath time, and then we need to go to the forge and make you a tail, bud."

Hiccup began to remove her armour.

 _"Me as well?_ " windshear complained

"Yes, you're having a bath too"

She pulled off her shoulder pads, gauntlets and vambraces and threw them aside.

" _Why"_

"You need to be clean for when we get out of here soon."

She pulled off her chestplate.

" _I can't fly."_

"Oh right. We'll wait till the others come then. Twilight and cami could probably carry you."

The tunic came next.

  
  


Fishlegs, snotlout and the twins watched from the rim if the cove.

"Should we be doing this? It feels…. Wrong." Bjorn asked. 

"It's fine." Snotlout dismissed

They watched as hiccup, now clothed only in a small tube top and her skirt and leggings inspected her arms and chest for something.

"Can't **see** any bruises. Benefits of tattoos I suppose." 

Snotlout was silent. He was staring at his cousin's arms and abs, taking in her tattoos. This woman was so different from the hiccup he had known. Or more accurately the hiccup he hadn't known. Through the bullying and teasing he had never really connected with his cousin.

Hiccup took off her prosthetic and splashed into the water, toothless following her in. 

"Come on windshear, the water's lovely."

" _Fine."_ The dragon growled and swam in after her. The water was only just shallow enough for her to stand so toothless and windshear he to sit back in their hind legs to keep above the water.

" _You lied, it's freezing!"_ She yelped and got out as fast as she could, using her fire to toast a spot on the ground to warm herself up.

"You're a big baby." Hiccup declared and stuck her tongue out.

Fishlegs was still stuck on the fact that hiccup had a prosthetic leg. 

_How had he not noticed. He usually prided himself on being observant. And hiccup didn't move like it was a hindrance._

"Am I about to get mugged or are you lot coming swimming as well?"

Fishlegs was shocked to see her staring right at them.

"I can see you, you know." 

"We're coming!" Ruff and tuff shouted in unison and they scrambled down the pathway into the cove.

Bjorn and Bjanki shared a look and followed them down.

Fishlegs walked after them and Olga followed him.

Only snotlout and Gustav still lay there, though they soon got up and went back to the village.

Hiccup rolled her eyes. 

She greeted the others, who then stripped to their unmentionables and joined her in the small lake.

"Love your tattoos H" tuffnut confessed. 

"Do they represent anything?" Ruffnut added.

Hiccup stared at them for a second and Fishlegs was worried they'd overstepped. 

He began to apologise for them but hiccup cut him off.

"It's fine Fishlegs. They do mean something. Every tattoo, except for the ones on my arms, covers a scar. Hiccup stepped into shallower waters so she could show them off a bit more easily. 

Around her waist was a dragon, it's wings curling around out of sight. Ocean waves seemed to crash down on her right shoulder and there were a bunch of black bands around her left arm. A flame stretched across her collarbone.

Lightning bolts crisscrossed down her back.

"I probably need to get eret to do some more…." She murmured.

There was a pretty fresh-looking stab scar on her left hip.

"I guess I could do a stylised one of you bud. Or maybe I could do a dagger like the one in my armour."

"A dagger would look really cool."

Hiccup looked startled as if she'd forgotten the others were here.

"Yeah, I'll probably go with that." 

They stayed for another couple hours. 

"It's getting dark, guys. You should probably go. Won't you be expected for dinner?" Hiccup asked.

"Nah, me and ruff live alone. We could camp out if you want. We'd love to heat some stories if you don't mind. And fishy wants to stay too. Don't you?" Tuffnut said with a glare in Fishlegs direction that said **shut up and do as I say.**

"Ok then." Hiccup conceded. "Toothless go find us some fish from the lake."

The dragon growled and went off to hunt. "So what do you want to hear?"

"Can you tell us about how you lost your leg?"

Hiccup took a deep breath. 

"Fine."

And this was the story she told....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should mostly be fixed now, let me know if you spot anything wrong


	3. The tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiccup talks about the red death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably going to be the last chapter for this week

"So let me set the scene. It wasn't long after I'd left, about a month or so. Toothless and I were still not feeling adventurous to leave the archipelago so we started to look for the nest ourselves, so we had somewhere to stay."

Hiccup poked the fire with a stick and sparks flew into the air.

"The problem was, there was already something there. It was a dragon, the size of a mountain"

"What was it called?" Fishlegs asked.

"Well no viking had ever reached that point before, so it didn't have one. But me and toothless named it the red death."

Ruffnut and tuffnut shared a look.

"She's….errr… I don't really know what the word would be in Norse. Maybe, queen? The literal translation would be alpha. The alpha species has the ability to control other dragons with it's mind. She was what was causing the berk raids. That food they were stealing? It was for her, and if they didn't bring enough back, they'd be eaten themselves. We had to stop her."

Hiccup's eyes sparkled with rage at the memory.

"So we attacked, drew her up into the sky where she was out of her element. In the end, we took her down, but then I was knocked off toothless. He dived to save me but I lost my leg."

Toothless suddenly materialised from the darkness.

"Speak of the devil" hiccup said with a little laugh. Everyone else at the fire was silent. She took a fish from toothless, stuck it on a spit and held it in front of toothless. He used a low flame to evenly cook it.

Everyone stared at her. 

"You act like you've never seen a dragon cook fish before." She joked."We should head back" she added more solemnly. They all nodded and hiccup grabbed her gear and led them back to the village. The two dragons jumped up through the window in hiccup's room and hiccup herself went through the door. 

"Hiccup. " her father's voice said from behind her.

She turned and he and gobber were sat there.

"Stoick." She acknowledged, keeping her face neutral and heading upstairs to her room. She curled up alongside toothless and went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's so short


	4. Good to be back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toothless regains flight

She woke the next morning to a hand shaking her awake.

" _ Hiccup" _

" _ Heather! Oh thank the gods."  _ Hiccup cried and pulled her into a hug.

" _ Ouch!"  _ Heather complained. 

" _ Sorry I forgot about your arm. I'm so glad you're okay." _

_ "I'm fine, where are we?"  _

_ "This is my old room on berk." _

" _ Why are we still here?!" _

_ "Toothless's tail fin is scrap, and windshear and a broken wing, I'm planning on solving one issue today but I can't fix a broken wing just like that." _ Hiccup told her.

" _ I'm coming with you."  _ Heather declared.

" _ No, not happening, you need rest"  _ hiccup insisted.

"As leader I am putting my foot down."

Later they both sat in the forge. Heather had taken off most of her armour, and hiccup had shed her tunic again, because they both only had one set of clothes, and they didn't want them to get too dirty.

Hiccup had a sword against a bellow and was hammering it into a rod when they heard voices approaching. 

"I understand that Stoick, but there's simply no way I can replace the weapons faster than that."

Gobber stepped into the forge and let out a lengthy sigh. Then he noticed the riders there and froze. Hiccup frowned and turned back to hammering. Heather knelt down and started picking up some of toothless's scales, got toothless to slobber into a bowl and ground it up to make the fireproof paint they used on their armour. Hiccup stretched the leather across the skeletal framework of the new tail, and used a needle to sew it in place. Heather then painted the paint across the tail in a nice thick coating. Gobber looked on, thoroughly confused. Then they brushed past him into the village square. 

" _ Hey bud! Come here I got you a new tail"  _ hiccup yelled and the dragon bounded over.

" _ Yes! Can we go flying right away?!" _ He inquired excitedly.

" _ I think a test flight's in order"  _ hiccup agreed with a wink.

Hiccup went to get into her armour in the haddock house.

She came out geared up.

" _ How do I look?"  _ Hiccup questioned 

" _ Pretty good. You'd look better without it on though."  _ Heather responded calmly.

"What the fuck?" Hiccup snorted.

"You heard me." Heather maintained with a giggle.

"We will be discussing that later."

"By all means. Your noble steed awaits."

She gave toothless a smack on the rump.0

" _ Hey _ " toothless said, mock offendedly.

Hiccup climbed onto toothless's back. 

"See you in a bit." Hiccup grinned. Heather watched as toothless spread his wings and leapt into the sky. The pair did a couple of loops overhead, so hiccup could check the tail, and they rose away into the sky until they were nothing but a black dot.

"Alright, I've been dying to know, can you understand the dragons?" A big blonde boy said from behind her.

"Yup. Dragonese. What's your name?" She asked in return. 

"Fishlegs. Fishlegs ingerman."

"Heather odswaldson."

Heather suddenly realised that apart from her wounded dragon, she was alone on berk. Her arm was still in a sling so if she was attacked she couldn't fight them off.

"I can give you a brief lesson if you want…."

"Yes please! Can I meet you in the great hall in ten minutes?" He checked.

"Sure."

As he walked away. The girl twin walked up next to her.

"He's mine." She said.

"I don't want him. He's not my type."

"Blonds?"

"Guys."

The girl did an incredible imitation of a fish.

"Anyway the main reason I came over was because I…."

"You what?" Heather prompted.

"I…. Wanted…. To learn too?"

Heather laughed. 

"Sure."

"And one last thing, can Astrid come? She's too afraid to ask, but don't tell her I said that, she'd take it as a personal challenge."

Heather laughed even harder and then turned to the other girl and called, "Hey are you coming too?"

The blonde immediately brightened from her stormy look.

"Sure."

Hiccup was so glad to be back on toothless. They looped and dived and spun, racing around and enjoying their newfound freedom. The tail was slightly sluggish since it weighed more than the one made from gronckle iron but it didn't matter, they were both just happy to be airborne.

" _ Feels good to be back, huh bud"  _ she called through the wind.

" _ Oh, it certainly does." _ He agreed and entered a flat spin, spreading his wings a metre above the water. They sped across the surface, throwing up a wake as they raced toward the horizon.

  
  


Heather sat on the circular wooden platform that the catapult was attached to. It was still locked in place by deathsong amber, a reminder that the last time she had flown here, it had been to attack the town. The sun was setting in the distance, the orange orb already halfway below the horizon. The sky was a medley of colours, orange, pink and purple streaks like waves on a restless sea. She heard the tell tale thud of toothless landing and the arhythmic footsteps of hiccup as she approached and sat down beside her. 

" _ Hey _ . _ "  _ Heather greeted.

" _ Hey." _ Hiccup responded. " _ Are you ok?" _

" _ I'm….fine."  _ heather denied half-heartedly.

" _ You miss the others don't you."  _

" _ You don't?"  _

" _ Fair point."  _ Hiccup conceded. 

"It's just…. The riders are a family. Sometimes a little closer than that."

Hiccup grinned at the thought of eret and Dagur's escapades. "And it feels wrong to be separated from them."

Then heather's arms were around her waist and they were hugging.

"And I miss flying and I'm having fucking mood swings and I don't know why." She giggled through her tears.

" _ Did you mean to say those things in Norse?"  _ Hiccup asked her calmly.

" _ Shut up. " _

" _ There's actually something I wanted to t-" _

Hiccup began but then she realised heather was asleep. Hiccup did her best to settle without waking her. Toothless curled around them and wrapped the pair in his wings.

They slept happy for the night, knowing that they would always have each other, no matter what happened.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was kinda just winging it up until now, pun intended of course, but I have an actual plan for what I'm doing.  
> And I swear to all I hold sacred (which isn't much) I'll finish it


	5. Unexpected arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The riders arrive, and the gang plays truth or dare

Hiccup awoke next morning to a cry of "DRAGONS! From the south!"

She saw Vikings milling about below. Heather was soon awake and by her side. 

" _ What's going on? Is it a raid?" _

" _ What, in broad daylight?" _ Hiccup asked. " _ Not likely." _

She climbed onto toothless and attached herself to the saddle.

" _ You coming with?" _

" _ No, I gotta keep an eye on windshear, and stop the Vikings from murdering anything." _

" _ Fair enough." _

Toothless launched into the sky. They shot toward the group of dragons, toothless readied a plasma blast. Hiccup stared at the oncoming dragons.

" _ Wait, toothless stop!" _ Hiccup yelled as she realised what was nagging her. It was the riders.

" _ Hiccup! Thank the gods you're all right!" _

Cami yelled to her.

" _ Where's my sister haddock?" _ Dagur shouted.

" _ She's fine dagur. She's on berk." Hiccup told him. _

" _ What?!" The riders shouted in unison. _

" _ Oh Thor…."  _ Hiccup mumbled. " _ I'll explain in a minute." _

Heather watched as the dragons landed in the forest and hiccup broke off from the main group and flew to the tower. 

" _ It's the riders. Come on, we have explaining to do."  _ Heather climbed aboard toothless and they flew to the cove.

When they touched down the other riders immediately came to them, demanding answers to questions.

" _ Why are you still here?" _

" _ Where's windshear?" _

"Hold on a minute!" Hiccup yelled.

"So first things first. I haven't been exactly truthful with you. My father wasn't a trader who died in a shipwreck. My father was Stoick the vast."

" _ Well that explains why you are not dead."  _ Mala observed calmly.

" _ Still doesn't explain where windshear is."  _ Allura pointed out.

" _ She's fine 'lura. She just hurt her wing when she got shot down." _ Heather interjected. Dagur pulled them both into a tight hug.

" _ Why didn't you send a terror mail?"  _ He demanded.

"There is an annoying lack of terrors on berk." Hiccup explained. "And I only just fixed toothless's tail."

" _ Well the important part is you're all ok." _ Atali added.

" _ Cool, awesome."  _ Heather said. " _ Dagur can you let us go now." _

He apologised and released his hold, leaving them gasping for breath.

" _ You know, you're taking this far better than expected." _ Hiccup laughed.

" _ Give us time." _ Cami told her." _ we'll get angry, don't worry." _

" _ We should probably go back to the village"  _ hiccup sighed _. "This is not a conversation I want to have." _

  
  


Astrid's warriors sat in the great hall. 

Snotlout and the twins were messing around whilst Astrid and Fishlegs re-read their notes on dragonese. Most of the village was there but a good portion of the hall was still empty.

A loud knock rang out.

"Stoick!" Hiccup shouted from the doorway. "I'd like to introduce my riders."

Hiccup was flanked by five people. One was heather, one was  **dagur** and the others Astrid didn't recognise.

"Why are you bringing more of your people to my island?" Stoick asked exasperatedly.

"We're leaving tomorrow, don't worry, but we need food first. And we need to sign a treaty."

Stoick gestured to the table Astrid's warriors sat at.

"Please, sit. We shall discuss the treaty tomorrow."

Hiccup sat down on Fishlegs' side of the table while dagur and heather sat on Astrid's. Two women, one with short blonde hair and one with long blonde hair sat with hiccup and a woman with ginger hair sat with heather and Dagur.

"Where's eret, Throk and Minden?' Hiccup asked. The names sounded strange to Astrid.

"Still not back from their mission." The woman with long blonde hair told her.

"Let's talk about you hiccup, sexual tension radiating off you in waves." Astrid almost spat her drink out.

"Damn, subtle cami." Hiccup said with a grin.

"Hey, I know first hand you don't get laid at home." Hiccup rolled her eyes amusedly. 

Astrid frowned.  _ First hand?  _

"Aww, is this about your old crush?" The girl asked. 

Hiccup beckoned the girl closer and when she leaned in, she stage whispered:

"Continue this line of inquiry, and they will never find the body."

All of the riders roared with laughter.

"Damn, hic when d'you so violent?" Dagur laughed. Snotlout snorted a little at the nickname.

"'Bout the same time I met you, why?" She deadpanned.

The laughter increased.

"Speaking of violence, hiccup needs a new tattoo." Heather interjected. 

"Oooh, is it a cool scar?" Dagur interrupted giddily. 

"Pretty cool." Hiccup conceded. 

"Show us." The short haired blonde commanded. 

"Nah"

"C'mon girl, you can't tease us like that." The girl Astrid realized was cami complained.

"Fine."

She stood up and pulled off her tunic.

Astrid stared in wonder at the the swirls of ink and when she checked, a lot of the hall was admiring them too.

"Stab wound." Hiccup said and pointed to a fresh looking ridged scar on her otherwise beautiful skin. 

"Damn." Dagur whistled. "How'd you get it?" 

"Fighting a viking." Hiccup told him.

"What are you gonna get to cover it?" 

"A dagger!" The twins said suddenly.

All of the riders turned to face them.

Fishlegs started to apologise but hiccup silenced him again.

"Yeah that's right."

"How about truth or dare?" Cami asked.

"Sure." Dagur, mala, heather and hiccup agreed. 

"C'mon Atali." She demanded.

"Fine…."

"Yes! Berkians?" She glanced at Astrid and Fishlegs.

"Ok." Astrid agreed and Fishlegs nodded. The twins shuffled closer. Only snotlout turned the offer down and walked away.

"Alright. We'll go around the table, you can pick anyone." Cami stated. "I'll start. Dagur truth or dare?" 

"Err…. Truth." He decided quickly.

"What's going on with you and eret?" She asked 

"Nothing!" 

Atali sneezed and hiccup leaned forward.

"She's allergic to your bullshit dag."

The riders burst out laughing again.

"Mala your turn." Atali said.

"Hiccup. Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"Sit in Atali's lap for the next round." Hiccup moved and sat down in the allocated seat.

"You're bony hiccup." 

"It's your go Atali. " cami told the other woman.

"Astrid. Truth or dare?"

Astrid froze. 

"Ummm…. Truth?" She picked hesitantly. 

"If you had to pick someone at the table…." Atali trailer off though Astrid understood the meaning.

"Ruff. I think she would be the least weird about it." She decided. Ruffnut glanced at her in surprise before quickly turning to make fun of snotlout.

"Dagur, you're up." Hiccup pointed out. 

"All right…. Hiccup."

"Truth."

"Why didn't you tell us about berk?" He asked. 

"Yeah, what's up with that? We're a family remember? No secrets."

"Berk is…. A part of my life I'd like to forget. I hated it here so much, and when I got away, I realised just how big the world beyond berk was, and I never looked back."

The words sobered the mood a bit, especially for Astrid and her warriors, who thought they had known her.

  
  
  



	6. The recon team

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The other riders arrive and Stoick finds something out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's a little shorter than my usual, so apologies for that.

"Chief!" Both Stoick and hiccup turned to face the shout. Eret strode in through the door, out of the rain, pausing briefly when he saw hiccup in Atali's lap.

"Errr…."

"Truth or dare, just don't question it."

"'Ret! We weren't expecting you back for another week!" Dagur stood up and hugged the man. 

"I bring urgent news from the north." He said.

"We will discuss this in private." Eret nodded and he and hiccup stood and turned to leave.

"If you can discuss this with my daughter, you can discuss it with me." Stoick shouted.

Eret fingered his blade and looked to hiccup, who shrugged.

"Fine, what's the report?" 

"Drago's fleet has finished construction. He has plans to set sail within a week."

"Shit. We don't have time to head back to the edge to get supplies, we'll just have to head north from here. We'll do some sabotage, sink some ships, do some damage. The works." 

Stoick stared in horror. His daughter was planning to attack **Drago**?

"If you're going from here, I will provide supplies, but I want you to take some of my warriors."

"Hiccup shook her head.

"No, absolutely not."

"Yes you will." 

"Your troops aren't trained to fight humans, only dragons, they've never travelled out of the Archipelago, they can't fly, so they'd have to sail, which will significantly increase our two day travel time. They have no bond with our group still have injuries, can't know our strategies, and to be perfectly frank, I don't trust them. They're not coming."

Astrid winced at hiccup's brutal summary of her warriors' ineptitude. 

"So teach us then. Show us how to ride dragons."

Most of the elders began to complain but Stoick silenced them.

"Take my warriors and I'll provide you with resources."

"Why are you helping us? You should be on his side." Hiccup stated.

"Because Drago bludvist is a madman without conscience or mercy."

"Yes." Hiccup said softly. "Believe me, I know."

Astrid sat in the great hall still with her troops. 

"Alright guys, tomorrow, we will be coming up with a strategy for battle against Drago. We will also be learning how to ride dragons. Remember, hiccup is in charge, so you listen to her, and you respect her team. I want all of you on best behaviour."

The berkians grumbled in agreement and stood, walking out the thick doors into the night. Astrid stayed in the hall a while, thinking about how so much had changed since hiccup left.

Hiccup and the riders headed to the cove to sleep.

Windshear bounced around with allura.

" _Allura!"_

" _Windshear! Are you ok?"_

" _I'll be fine. I can almost fly again!"_ She conversed excitedly. 

"It's good to have you guys back with us." Hiccup said.

Throk grunted and Minden gave a grim smile.

Mala looped her arm around Throk's waist and gave a happy sigh. Eret stepped closer to dagur and Atali and Minden took the lead, talking quietly. Toothless, allura and windshear raced around them in the woods.

"It's nice to see them all back together again." Heather said.

Hiccup started, deep in thought.

"Yeah, it is, isn't it." 

"Was quite nice to have you to myself for a bit though." Heather told her. 

"Yeah, it was." 

"Alright out with it, something's bothering you." Heather laughed. "Is it about Drago? Or the riders? Or berk?" 

"A bit of it all I think. It annoys me we still don't know Drago's target, I don't trust the berkians not to betray us the first chance they get. And the riders. I can't shake this nagging feeling in getting us all into a trap." She conceded.

"Hey." Heather said softly. "It's gonna be fine." She slipped her hand inside hiccup's and gave it a squeeze.

Hiccup smiled at her. 

"Do I ever tell you how grateful I am to have you around?" 

"You do but it doesn't hurt to say it more."

They reached the cove and settled down for the night. It was, for once, quite a warm day on berk. The stars shone in the sky and the moon reflected in the still water of the lake. The riders chatted amicably, catching up the recon team on what happened whilst they were away. 

The campfire crackled, and the riders slipped one by one into sleep.

The next morning hiccup awoke to the smell of cooking fish. She stood up and stretched. Eret and Dagur were both awake, 6 fish on a spit over the campfire. The dragons were messing around, bouncing from rock to rock.

" _Be careful guys, no injuries before we begin the assault."_ Hiccup warned.

"Morning hic. Fish?" Hiccup grabbed one and settled down to eat closer to the fire. Heather was still asleep and so were mala and Throk, who were curled up next to each other. 

"Where are Minden and Atali?" Hiccup asked.

"Decided they'd rather have berries than risk Dagur's cooking." Eret joked.

"They did go and get berries, but for favouring the fish, not…." Dagur scowled.

"I was kidding dag, jeez" eret laughed.

The three started to eat breakfast.

When all the rider's were awake, hiccup explained her plan.

"Once you've all done some training with your own protégé, we will all meet here and go for an evening flight. if the bond between rider and dragon isn't sealed after that then nothing will."

Astrid awoke to a cold morning, a stark contrast from the warmth of last night. 

She got up, got dressed, ate breakfast and met up with the others. 

"Just to reiterate. Best behaviour." She ordered.

Later that day hiccup found herself sat around a table in the arena with Astrid and eret, going over strategy. The rest of the riders, including Minden and Throk were out on an exercise hiccup had set them and the berkians were practicing close quarters combat in the arena.

"Drago has his fleet in a circular formation, in this cavern of ice, there're only a few exits. There's a few drydocks built into the wall, building warships and one is constructing something that looks a lot like project shellfire. "

Hiccup sucked in a breath.

"Alright here's the plan."


	7. Just author stuff!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just some notes.

So I have been writing this story, coming up on seven chapters for a while now. Chapter seven is still underway and I'm about a third of the way though my overall plan for the story. This is going on an extremely brief hiatus, as in I don't plan to upload anything during the half term (Which is next week) so you can expect maybe 2 chapters posted the week after.

Thank you to the people who have read this and given kudos, it really means a lot


	8. training and a mistake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the warriors meet their dragons. snot makes a mistake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm back!

"Our dragons are fast, we'll use that to our advantage. We fly in, and head for the fleet. Meanwhile, dagur and sleuther cover barf and belch as they blow the walls of the dry docks and do as much damage as possible. Eret and skullcrusher, covered by atali and umbra, along with hookfang and meatlug will hit the ships and knock down some masts. Stormfly, heather, windshear me and toothless will work on stealing the plans for this new project shellfire thing and burn them. After barf and belch have messed up the dry docks, we'll open the doors and seal them open with allura's Amber. It'll stop then from recovering the remains of wherever they were building. Hopefully by the time we've done some damage, the armada will arrive and finish them off. Then we regroup and take Drago out. Astrid, you'll ride stormfly the nadder, Fishlegs, meatlug the gronckle, snotlout, hookfang the monstrous nightmare and the twins will ride barf and belch. "

Astrid quickly called upon her nadder knowledge; it'd been about 3 years since she'd seen a living one. They were tough, sharp class dragons, with long teeth, a sharp sense of smell and poisonous tail spikes that could launch on command. It had a blind spot directly in front of its snout.

"Alright riders we need to train these guys, so everyone pick a student."

Heather beckoned to Fishlegs.

"You're with me. C'mon."

"Cami, take the twins." Hiccup ordered. "Eret you take Astrid, snotlout, you're with me."

Hiccup watched as the riders split off with their proteges. She beckoned to snotlout.

"Alright, come with me." She walked out of the arena, followed by her night fury. They reached the outside before snotlout asked his first question.

“Where are we going?”

“To train. I had to get out of that arena, too many bad memories.” she responded calmly, though a look of deep thought still hung like a mask on her face.

“so …. You said I was riding a monstrous nightmare? When it does the whole light-itself-on-fire thing, how do i not get roasted alive?”

“They can control where they set themselves on fire, he’ll just cut it off around the neck area, which is where you will ride.” she chucked him some rope. “You have ridden a yak before?”

The boy nodded.

“Same principle. Lean to turn, squeeze to speed up, pull to slow down. You don’t need to steer as much because he doesn't want to hit anything either.”

“this is a lot of information very quickly!” snotlout said panickily.

“you’ll be fine.” Hiccup told him and gestured to the saddle on the dragon.

Snotlout climbed on and then they were flying.

He looked down nervously as berk got further away and they climbed into the clouds. It was a cold day, not unusual for berk, but the air had a certain crispness that you didn’t get on the ground.

Then they were through the clouds and the vast blue sky stretched out in every direction. Snotlout blinked, trying to get a sense of scale in this strange, ethereal world.

Suddenly hiccup rolled toothless in a series of acrobatic manoeuvres and came up on his other side.

“this is what it’s like to be a dragon rider snotlout.”

Eret and Astrid walked toward a part of the arena where no one was. They were followed by his rumblehorn, dagur and dagur’s dragon (which was one she didn’t recognise).

When they reached the area, a blue and gold nadder came bounding over excitedly. It hissed something Astrid recognised to be a greeting in dragonese.

“ _hel…lo. My…. Name….Astrid. what…. Yours?”_ she asked with great difficulty.

The dragon launched into a fast monologue and Astrid looked in confusion to eret and dagur.

“what did she say? The only bit I understood was that her name is stormfly.”

“she said that though she appreciates the effort to try and speak in her tongue, she can understand you in Norse.”

“hello stormfly. Is it ok if I pet you?” Astrid asked.

When the dragon bobbed its head and made the chirping noise Heather had told them meant yes, Astrid stepped closer.

She reached out a hand and laid it on the dragon’s snout, feeling the heat emanating from inside her and the smooth texture of her scales.

“she likes to be scratched under her chin.” Eret shouted to her from a little way away. “but whatever you do, don’t talk down her. She a bit headstrong.”

Stormfly swivelled to face eret and shot a spine at his feet. Rather than freaking out he just laughed and picked it up.

Astrid grinned.

“I think you and I are going to get along well.”

Cami led the twins into a shady part of the arena.

“what dragon do you have?” ruffnut asked.

A loud clang made ruff and tuff jump and they looked up to see a large stormcutter’s owl-like face staring down.

“this is my dragon twilight.”

Ruffnut stared into the creature’s large yellow eyes and she felt strange, like it was staring into her soul. When she checked, tuff too was staring mesmerised at the dragon.

Then they spotted another dragon. A forest green zippleback snaked its way out of the shadow. Ruffnut desperately tried to remember the dragonese greeting they had been taught but couldn’t think of it.

Cami handed them each some cod.

“Hold the fish out to the dragon.” She instructed. “ruffnut, give yours to the right head, tuff yours to the left.” After they’d handed them over the dragon allowed them to touch it.

“the left head is called belch; the right is barf.” Cami told them.

They heard a whoop of laughter and turned to watch as Astrid burst out of the arena on a nadder’s back, followed by eret and dagur, who was cackling like a madman.

“alright!” cami yelled. “mount up!”

Heather had taken fishlegs from the arena, and soon they reached a cliff.

Fishlegs stared nervously down at the crashing waves far below. Heather watched as fear and resolve flitted across his face in equal measure.

“to bond with your dragon, you have to trust them with your life.” Heather whistled and windshear and meatlug took up positions a little way down from them.

“so we are going to jump.”

Fishlegs looked at her in horror.

“I can’t do that! I’ll miss!”

“no you won’t. but even if you did, you dragon can catch you. Or I can catch you. I’ve done this a million times. So trust me, and your dragon and jump.” She ordered.

And he did. Screaming all the way. Heather laughed and jumped after him and they both landed on their dragons.

“see? Not so bad.” Fishlegs smiled weakly at that, “now, why don’t you introduce yourself to your dragon?”

“ _hello meatlug. My name fishlegs. Nice to meet you.”_ He said shakily.

“alright then, lets meet up with the others.”

By the time they reached the cove it was getting dark. All the riders and warriors were already there and heather was surprised to see Astrid and the twins had bonded with their dragons rather well.

Fishlegs and meatlug had been getting to know one another, with a little help from heather.

“alright then, now everyone’s here, lets go!” hiccup burst up into the darkening sky, followed quickly by throk, mala, minden and eret, with a little more hesitancy from the warriors but they too were soon up in the air. It was a clear night and arvendals fire was sparkling in the starry night sky. Soon they were high in the sky, with berk a lit up dot on the horizon.

Astrid gasped at the beauty and gave stormfly a scratch.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say thank you. This is amazing. You guys are amazing.”

Snotlout felt a bit bad as he wrote the plan down on a sheet of paper and rolled it into a sheet to send to drago. He tied it to the leg of a terror like he had been told. He watched the riders’ chance of winning disappear.


	9. The journey begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With training complete the riders head north to confront Drago. Astrid ponders the members of the team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nearly halfway through the story and things are heating up.  
> It only gets crazier from here folks!

Hiccup checked her saddlebags quickly and stowed a spare tail in a side pouch. She climbed aboard and clipped in.

She was about to take off when Stoick grabbed her hand. She looked at him.

"If you get to Drago…. Make him pay." 

Hiccup nodded curtly and she launched into the air, followed by the rest of the riders. 

Astrid had changed into a thicker, red tunic and another piece of armour that had a hood attached to it. Most of the riders had just put on some furs under their armour and the warriors all had thicker clothes. 

The first few hours went slowly, the riders chatting amongst themselves and to there dragons, which bugged astrid so she asked heather to teach them some more. As they now had something to focus on, the flight went by much quicker and soon huge chunks of ice could be seen in the water. Astrid had changed into a thicker, red tunic and another piece of armour that had a hood attached to it. Most of the riders had just put on some furs under their armour and the warriors all had thicker clothes. 

The first few hours went slowly, the riders chatting amongst themselves and to their dragons, which bugged Astrid because she couldn’t understand what was going on, so she asked heather to teach them some more. As they now had something to focus on, the flight went by much quicker and soon huge chunks of ice could be seen in the water. Astrid had grown up on berk, not seeing ice was impossible since it snowed 9 months of the year, but something enthralled her about these huge white blobs that floated in the turquoise water below. Then they encountered their first storm. It was a rainstorm, as they’d just entered the fog bank on the edges of the archipelago. Because they were so high up the rain wasn’t too bad of an issue, but the crackle of thunder reminded Astrid of the fact they were all carrying some form of metal, which for some reason the lightning liked. Hiccup took them above the clouds after about an hour more and Astrid soon discovered her reasoning for not doing it sooner. It was freezing up there. 

A voice snapped Astrid out of her thoughts.

“I’m gonna do it.” She looked over at hiccup who was stood up in her stirrups.

“I wouldn’t.” heather cautioned. “no land, only ocean and it always gos wrong.”

“not always.” Hiccup protested as she unclipped from the saddle and pulled a lever, which spread toothless’s tailfin. “besides. I have you to catch me.” She told heather.

The dragon himself grumbled something but hiccup just mocked him lightly.

Then she jumped. Fishlegs gasped and Astrid craned her neck to find the rider. Then someone flew past her. She jumped and turned to face them. Hiccup was floating leisurely alongside her and stormfly with wings of leather. She banked slightly and flew under stormfly and came out on the other side. Heather laughed at the twin’s expressions while cami just shook her head fondly. Hiccup started to lose altitude and toothless ballooned his wings and glided into position behind her.

The dragon fired a plasma blast and hiccup rose into the air again.

She whooped.

“this is amazing! Seriously you guys don’t know what you’re missing,” hiccup shouted matter-of-factly. Then toothless dived forwards and caught hiccup on his back. She clipped her prosthetic back in place and reattached herself to the saddle.

Later they set down on an island covered in snow and established a camp down by the water.

Cami had collected firewood and the toothless lit it while the other dragons hunted for fish. They all sat round the fire together.

Astrid watched as everyone got comfortable. Throk and mala snuggled into each other, dagur laid down with his head in erets lap. Minden looped her arm around atali’s waist.

The only three who didn’t get close with someone were cami, hiccup and heather, though the latter two shared a look with something Astrid couldn’t quite place.

“let’s do a song.” Eret suggested. “we gotta do something to get the blood pumping. Tomorrow we fight the most powerful warlord ever to be born in the archipelago.”

“fine. Which one should we do?” hiccup asked.

“the one we sung before the battle of wing maiden island.” Atali proposed. Minden and cami nodded.

Eret counted quietly and then they began to sing.

“You and I, we've been through it all

Is it time to say goodbye?

Dry your eye

We have been together so long

Is it time to let go?

Apart we grow

Soon we will know”

Astrid listened silently, and turned to see the other warriors doing the same.

“You are the reason to go on livin'

I need to try things and be on my own

We'll always be friends but keep our distance

We'll be together from afar, forever

Listen, listen within, ooh”

The lyrics were beautiful, and Astrid felt a melancholy sadness

"We have been, we've been everywhere

To the stars and back again, yes my friend

We have seen, we've seen everything"

She didn't doubt that was true. 

"But will I ever see you again, my old friend?

Friends 'til the end

You are the reason to go on livin'

I need to try this and be on my own

We'll always be friends but keep our distance

We'll be together from afar, forever"

The song ended and then the breathing of the dragons and the crackle of the fire were the only noise.

Astrid took the time to examine each person in their strange little team.

Fishlegs, a bookworm and a nerd. No doubt a valuable asset, but Astrid wondered whether his kind heart would cause problems.

Tuffnut, he was a wildcard. He was brilliant when he applied himself and she had no doubts that if he and ruff focused they kick ass from the back of a dragon.

Ruffnut was… special. She was unique. Same rare brilliance as tuffnut, with a knack for trouble. There was something about her that Astrid admired, though she couldn't put her finger on it. 

Snotlout. She had worked with him for years and she still didn't trust him, though she knew he could be relied on in combat at least.

_ Now onto the interesting ones.  _ She thought.

Mala. The woman was tall, well spoken and clearly comfortable with dragons. Astrid had only seen her fight once, but she knew she was deadly with her katana.

Throk. The man was also tall, with broad shoulders and deep brown eyes. He didn't say much, but his body language and her eyes told her all she needed to know about his and mala's relationship.

Cami was fierce, a skilled swordsman and quick witted. Astrid would be lying if she didn't feel at least a little intimidated by her.

Heather was good with her axe and more than a little edgy. 

_ We might've got on well if she'd grown up on berk  _ Astrid mused.

She and hiccup seemed to share some spark.

Atali was kind, quiet but always ready to fight and Minden was…. Minden. She hasn't talked to her that much or seen her do anything.

Dagur was something. He was just as tall, if not more, muscly but also really protective of his 'family'. He and eret seemed to have something going on.

Hiccup was still an enigma. The girl defied every expectation that Astrid had, which both scared and intrigued her. She had no way to gauge responses and constantly found herself walking on eggshells.

Astrid drifted into the gentle embrace of sleep, curled into stormfly's side.

  
  
  
  



	10. Cathedral of ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The riders complete their journey to Drago and prepare for the fight of their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is less than half the length of my regular chapters, but it's because this is only needs to be short.

The next morning Astrid awoke to the smell of roasting mutton and the sound of hushed voices. Someone had thrown a blanket over her after she had fallen asleep. She shifted slightly and sat up.

There was a sound of shuffling and then hiccup's voice greeted her.

"Morning Astrid. Sleep well?" Astrid nodded and stretched and finally opened her eyes. Hiccup and Heather were the only two awake and a small piece of meat was cooking.

"Want any mutton?" Heather asked her.

Hiccup nodded at her. 

"Trust me, you want the mutton. Heather's a great cook."

The girl in question fiddled with her hair.

"Aww, thanks hiccup."

"I'll have some then, if it's not to much trouble." Astrid checked and shuffled closer to the fire.

A bit later dagur woke up and then flopped back down, right onto eret and his startled shriek woke the rest of the camp, which sent hiccup, heather and Astrid into fits of giggles. The dragons grumbled and tucked their heads under their wings and went back to sleep while the riders are breakfast and packed up camped.

"Alright, we're about 2 hours' ride from the fleet, so, everyone remember the plan?" Hiccup asked.

The group murmured assents and they struck the camp and put all of the tents in a big bundle in the campfire. 

"I love a good but of pyromania as much as the next viking, but why are we burning the tents?" Tuff asked?

"No point carrying em. " Hiccup told him. "The more stuff your dragon is carrying, the less maneuverable it'll be. We need the dragons on their A game for this fight."

Tuffnut oh'd in understanding.

Then hiccup pulled something from a slot in her armour. It was a small leather bound book, which she opened and spread out on the blanket they'd put down. She folded out pages until a massive map filled a lot of the space. Then she pulled a knife out and a charcoal stick, sharpened the charcoal and then bolstered the knife. She began to draw in the islands they had seen on the way out while the others looked at the very edges and admired the craftsmanship. Astrid spotted berk, quite small on the map, surrounded by rolling waves and miniature dragons. There was an island, with big letters above it, designating it as The Edge and when Astrid asked she found it was the riders' base of operations. It was just outside the archipelago. She found Beserker island, outcast island, wingmaiden island and a bunch she didn't recognise like breakneck bog and the defenders of the wing. She spotted one called screaming death island, another called the sanctuary, which looked to be covered in massive spikes of ice.

She watched hiccup draw in the new islands with concentration, somehow remembering minute details from high altitude flybys. After a while hiccup was satisfied with her drawing and she folded the map back up and tucked it safely in her armour. Then the riders mounted up and began their journey northwood ( an:pretty sure that's spelt wrong, can anyone help me out?).

The flight was silent and Astrid watched as the riders checked their weapons. Snotlout seemed to grow more and more nervous by the minute though when she asked why he shot her down quickly.

Then they spotted it.

Looming out of the water was a gigantic cavern of ice. It was beautiful like a cathedral of nature that glistened in the afternoon light. Astrid looked below and spotted the lights of trailer ships. The battle would begin soon.


	11. The battle begins..... and ends?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The riders begin their assault, but it is short lived. Trust is shattered and hope is lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry in advance, I got a little whump-y in this. Don't like dont read. It's not to bad, but you have been warned.

"Alright! Let's go!" Hiccup yelled and toothless leapt into the air. Astrid urged stormfly up and after them. Heather glided past them and the three climbed to the ceiling of the massive ice cavern. The dragons clung on and they watched as explosions began at the dry docks and when troops started to head towards it hiccup dropped off the roof and swept down onto the deck, pulling her knife from its slot in her armour. Heather pulled her axe off her back and Astrid snuck after them as hiccup kicked in the door. A man stood there, but before he could cry out hiccup stabbed him in the throat. He thudded to the floor. Astrid stopped for a second, shocked at the display of brutality. She heard a loud crash from behind, which she assumed was eret at work. 

Skullcrusher rammed another mast and it toppled to the deck, sending the crew scattering. Atali and umbra flew just off his wing and fired a blast of sand at the scattered troops. Hookfang torched a ship.

Meatlug blasted rocks at some ships and snotlout and Fishlegs clung on for their lives.

The three invaders stalked down the corridor, only stopping once, so heather could wipe the floor with two guards. Astrid couldn't see hiccup's face, but the admiration was evident from her body language as she watched the other girl gracefully take them both out. 

"War room's this way." Hiccup told them and turned the corner just in time to meet the fist of a soldier, sending her flying across the room.

Heather let out a battle cry and was about to run in when she took a kick from behind. Astrid struck out at their attackers but was quickly overwhelmed and knocked out. 

When she awoke they were in a cell. Most of the riders were already awake, and looking bitter and sad. Astrid did a headcount and found they were down a rider. _Minden. The girl from the scouting party._ Astrid realized.

"Where's Minden?" She asked.

"She's dead." Hiccup snapped. "Fell from echo above the dockyards, after she took an arrow in the shoulder. They knew we were coming. They knew the whole plan. Because someone betrayed us."

Astrid gasped. 

Then a guard came into the cell. All of the riders stood. Hiccup clenched her hands into fists.

"I'll go first." 

The guard shrugged. 

"Suit yaself."

She followed him out of the room.

"I hope you remember this day snotface." Dagur growled. 

Snotlout was silent.

"Why?" Tuff asked him.

"Because tuffnut, there are two types of people when interrogations are involved.

There are some more sensible people, who will give up information to protect themselves, and then there are people like hiccup. She told me you'd seen her tattoos?" Tuffnut nodded.

Astrid looked at him confused. 

"When?"

But dagur spoke over tuff's answer.

"So you've seen the lightning down her back?"

Tuffnut nodded again.

"They confused me because some of the lines were newer than others."

"Those cover whip marks."

The berkians looked shocked. 

"Whenever we're captured, she always goes first." Eret continued. "She takes the beating and whipping and poison to protect us. And she has never, not even once given up information."

Then a crack sounded and a scream echoed down the hall. Every rider winced in sync.

"I hope you can live with yourself."

Mala finished.

Hiccup knelt in front of Drago on the deck of his flagship, the conqueror. They had taken off her armour and tunic.

"I said, I don't know anything. We didn't reach your war room before we were caught."

She was whipped again but managed to choke back the scream.

"I don't believe you." Drago told her calmly. He grabbed a fistfull of her hair and lifted her up. 

"Did you know it was a berkian who ratted you out? Snotlout, I think his name was."

"Son of a bitch." Hiccup groaned.

He leered in her face. 

"And now, stupid dragon rider, you will die."

"Am I… supposed…. To be…. Scared?" She managed to get out. Drago roared in rage and pulled a dagger from his cloak.

"Oh no…. What're you….gonna do?...stab Me?" She gave a hoarse laugh which turned into a cry of pain as he stabbed her and threw her down on the deck.

"Awww.." he mocked "are you not feeling too good?"

"I don't have enough middle fingers to tell you how I feel" she got out, blood streaming down the side of her face.

There was a distant crash. Everyone on deck turned to face it. in the distance, among the forest of masts she spotted outcast sails and defenders of the wing ships. Drago screamed in rage. Hiccup pushed herself to her feet, grabbed the bull hook Drago had dropped, and smacked him in the head with it. He barely even flinched. She went to hit him again but he grabbed it and kicked her, sending her flying and crashing into rail. He stalked over and raised the bull hook high, preparing to bring it down on her head, when an axe caught it from behind. Heather hit him hard in the face and he fell over the ships rail. 

_"Hiccup!"_

" _Heather, thank the gods"_ hiccup slurred. " _We need to go. Are the other riders ok?"_ She asked as heather slung her arm over her shoulders and helped her to her feet.

" _I can't believe you're thinking about them right now."_

_"Why? You guys and your dragons are and always have been my only priority."_

Then, heather surged forward and they were kissing. They broke apart a second later.

"I love you hiccup haddock." She told her.

"I love you too."

Astrid stood at the doorway, ready to defend the riders as they freed their dragons from the hold of Drago's flagship.

Then she spotted heather, with a semi conscious hiccup limping along with her help.

"Oh my gods, are you ok?" 

"Does any part of me look ok Astrid." Hiccup quipped.

Snotlout stared at hiccup. He jumped up and was about to start apologising.

"Don't. You've already done enough damage." Hiccup cut him off bitterly.

Snotlout's face was a mix of regret and horror.

Hiccup clenched a hand to her side and felt warm blood spilling out.

"Come on. The fleet can't win without us." She told them and climbed aboard toothless.

"Hiccup no! You're in no state to fly!" Eret protested.

"Eret if we don't stop them here the fate of the Archipelago is sealed. We have to help." She argued. "Look I'm not blind to the risks. I know what could happen. But we have to do this." Cami nodded and ran out of the room onto the deck and slid the matches open, allowing the other dragons out.

Twilight roared and torched the ship next to drago's flagship.

"Alright riders, let's do some damage!"

  
  
  



	12. A crushing defeat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the riders make a stand in the ice cavern

Hiccup flew over the battle. Defender ships had forced their way into the formation, but were taking heavy losses. They were smaller than the trapped barges and less heavily armed, but they still prevented them from leaving so the riders had their chance. She mostly let toothless handle the mission, since she was injured, just steering him onto course with the targets he wanted. She watched as her friends made passes over ships, lighting fires and ramming masts. At one point she saw Astrid drop onto the deck of a ship, spin it’s wheel and lock it in place with an axe, sending it careening into another, making them both all to the depths in the shallow waters of one of the entry channels. Drago's flagship was incapacitated, it's masts wrecked, rudder destroyed, lit on fire and taking on water. It was drifting too since heather had cut the anchor lines, so fire was jumping the moorings to other ships. Smoke congealed in the cavern's ceiling and the flames burned hot as hiccup did a pass by. She pitched toothless to avoid a net and cried out in pain as her new stab wound protestested the strain.

“ _are you ok?”_ toothless asked worriedly.

“I’ll be fine bud.” She responded through gritted teeth.

Suddenly an immense column of water rose into the air and something huge surfaced, smashing aside trapper barges and defender and outcast ships indiscriminately.

Heather flew up on hiccup’s wing.

“no way….. it’s another bewilderbeast!” hiccup said. The creature smashed a tusk down on a ship, which snapped in two. A column of ice spewed from it’s mouth, sealing one of the entrances and freezing a ship or two in the process. Hiccup formed up with the rest of the riders.

“what is that thing?” Astrid demanded.

“it’s a bewilderbeast. Alphas like the red death.” Hiccup told her.

“what’s the red death?!” Astrid started but hiccup kept talking.

“they have the power to control other dragons, but the bond between rider and dragon is greater than that.

“look at the chains on its back! What are they?” cami asked. Hiccup steered toothless under the fin-like wing.

A metal shape hung underneath it, held in place by huge chains that wrapped around the body, and hiccup suspected it was mirrored on the other side.

The dragon rampaged and smashed, blasting ice at the riders and not caring about the damage it was doing to the trapper fleet.

Most of the armada was covered in ice or burning like a monstrous nightmare. A huge chunck of ice fell from the roof which smashed through the deck of an outcast ship. Another entrance to the cavern collapsed and smoke was filling the air.

“the smoke’s getting too thick.” Mala yelled over the roaring fire.

“agreed!” hiccup shouted back. “riders, retreat!”

They went for the last exit and burst into the freezing late afternoon air.

They all sucked in deep breaths and put down on a nearby iceberg and looked at the collapsing cavern.

“we beat the fleet at least.” Cami stated solemnly as they watched smoke rise from the hole in the roof. “any chance the bewilderbeast’ll get buried?”

There was a loud crash and two white tusks smashed through a wall of ice and out into the open sea. It roared, dipped it’s head down and dived under the water, a wake trail from it’s dorsal spines were the only sign of it.

“we have to look for survivors.” Hiccup said and got ready to take off.

“no.” heather told her firmly.

“you’re badly injured, you need to be treated and we all know no-one in there is gonna make it.” Another hunk of ice crashed down into the inferno as if to prove her point.

A look of utter despair was on the rider’s faces, and the berkians saw how tense hiccup was. Finally she tore her eyes from the blaze, eyes full of rage.

“we’re going to kill him.” She said angrily. “but first we still need what’s in his war room. Atali?” the grieving woman looked at her.

“I need you to see whether Drago’s ship is still intact enough to board. The rest of you, follow that wake as far as you can, try and get a compass bearing for it’s direction.”

“what are you gonna do?” Astrid asked.

“I gotta patch myself up.” Hiccup told them and showed them her blood covered side.

“I’ll help you.” Heather said without hesitation.

Hiccup thanked her quietly and the rest of the riders took off and split up.

Hiccup pulled off her tunic, revealing the ugly stab wound and dried blood crusted around it, with more still coming from the wound.

“alright, put pressure on it.” Heather commanded as she went to windshear’s saddlebag and collected her med kit. She pulled out a needle and some thread and quickly sewed the wound shut. Hiccup winced as she pulled the stitches tight.

“sorry.” Heather cringed.

Once she was done, she wetted a cloth in the snow and tried to wash off as much of the blood as possible.

She took a bandage and wound one round the wound, and then two more up her back, where the whipping had been particularly bad.

Then she leaned in for a kiss.

Hiccup obliged and giggled afterwards.

“what?” heather demanded.

“nothing. I just never thought you’d be into me.” Hiccup smiled.

She stood up and winced, before hobbling over to toothless.

The smile on heather’s face died a little.

“do you think atali will be ok?”

Hiccup sighed.

“I’m….. not sure.” Hiccup said. “losing a loved one is a hard thing to endure.” She stroked the rings down her arms. “she’s tough, she’ll likely pull through”.

Heather pulled her in close.

“I hope I never lose you.”


	13. Let's kill this Bastard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The riders find drago's plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter

There was a shriek as atali and umbra landed behind them on the iceberg.

"How'd it look?" Hiccup asked.

"Accessible, though probably not much longer." Hiccup clambered onto toothless and the three riders launched back into the sky. They skimmed low over the water and over the charred wrecks of warships, the thicker beams of their skeletal support structure often the only remainder. On the intact ships bodies littered the decks and discarded weapons floated in the water in between. Then hiccup spotted Drago's flagship. It was a miracle it was still afloat. It was badly burned, giant swathes of deck collapsed, two of the three masts toppled, the sails on the last ripped and torn. It had developed a heavy list, so bad that the bodies and weapons of those aboard had gathered against the port rail.

They touched down and hiccup had to steady herself to stop herself from slipping down into the water.

They stepped carefully into the ship, checking every body for signs of life, wary of being ambushed again. When they made it to the war room hiccup pushed the door open and it banged against the wall, loud, on a ship where the only noise was that of water slowly filling the hold. The furniture was collected against the left hand wall, but pinned up against the right hand one was a map of the Archipelago. It wasn't labelled but hiccup knew her geography. She pulled it from the wall and atali and heather stared over her shoulder.

"This first one is caldera cay. This one is Beserker island. The outcasts. The wingmaidens." She told them, gesturing as she did.

"And this one?" Heather prompted, pointing at an island a ways away from the others. 

"The Edge." Hiccup grimaced. "He's gonna attack our home."

They raced out of the collapsing cavern, the new map tucked inside hiccup's. The other riders spotted them and formed up.

"We know where Drago is going to hit next, so let's kill this Bastard."


	14. The ones we lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> snotlout tries to apologise and the berkians learn about the other riders

They headed south, above the clouds, staring down at the water for anything that showed they were catching the bewilderbeast.

“I really am sorry hiccup.” Snotlout said. Hookfang was flying a way from the group on hiccups orders.

“we haven’t got any reason to trust you.” Hiccup had said. At least he’d had the decency to look guilty for what he’d done.

“shut up!” Cami told him angrily. “we lost a rider because of you.” The boy flinched.

“now, because you gave us away, we couldn’t stop him, he’s free to decimate entire islands. He will kill _hundreds of people! THOUSANDS OF DRAGONS!”_ she continued, descending into dragonese as she got more and more angry. “it’s the Viggo fiasco all over again.”

“it’s not quite the same. We only lost one rider this time.” Atali argued bitterly.

Astrid looked over at the other berkians.

“Viggo fiasco?” she asked hiccup.

“there were two brothers, Viggo and Ryker, who had a dragon hunting empire outside the archipelago. One time trader Johann had his ship taken by dagger.”

“I WAS STILL EVIL AT THIS POINT” dagur interrupted.

“well we went to go and rescue Johann’s stuff and that was when I found this thing called the dragon eye. They wanted it back, since it had a ton of dragon information stored on its lenses. Of course, i didn’t give it back.” Hiccup laughed hollowly. “I had no idea what I was getting us into. The team was a little bigger then. We still had thuggory, Ayla and iden.” The names sounded foreign to Astrid.

“what followed was a three-year war with the hunters. It ended after project shellfire, where they weaponized a shellfire dragon to attack key targets for our alliance. There was a schism however, and Ryker betrayed Viggo and took control of the hunters. Viggo helped us take him out, but not before we lost three riders. Then he betrayed us and I killed him. Or I thought I did anyway. Turns out he was working for Johann all along, and the two of them worked with this guy called krogan, a bounty hunter or mercenary who worked with Drago.”

“what happened to the riders? What were they like?” fishlegs asked.

“iden was a defender of the wing who died when Viggo took her hostage in return for the dragon eye. She stabbed him and he slit her throat. Ayla was a wing maiden who jumped in front of a shellfire blast to save a kid on wingmaiden island. Thuggory was on a recon mission during project shellfire. He went missing, but two weeks later we found his dragon, striker, dead in the sea along with all his gear. We never found his body. Those aren't the only riders we lost too the war however.”

Cami winced. She and thuggory had sort-of dated, not anything official but a bond none the less. When he had died, she had taken to sleeping in hiccup’s hut, she found the other woman’s presence soothing.

They flew in silence for the rest of the journey there.


	15. The battle of Caldera Cay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The riders attack the bewilderbeast and begin search and rescue for the defenders of the wing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a longer chapter.

Caldera cay came upon the horizon not long after.

"Oh no…." Heather said as they spotted the giant ice spikes of a bewilderbeast covering most of the island.

"Mala, take heather, Throk and cami and go do search and rescue."

Mala began to protest but hiccup silenced her.

"Your people need you. Dagur, eret, take astrid and draw it out to sea, Fishlegs, keep an eye on snotlout. You two-" She pointed at the twins. "-Are with me. Atali, follow us in but stay back. If the others need help, go to them." 

She broke off on toothless and the twins and atali followed her as they dived down to the water's surface and skimmed not far above.

Eret lead Astrid and dagur toward the huge beast, currently terrorising some locals and destroying houses. 

"Astrid! Spineshot there!" He yelled and pointed to some of the thick chains that were holding up the metal structures. Stormfly stopped abruptly and fired some spines which glanced off. 

"No good!" Dagur affirmed. "They're too thick!" 

Eret took skullcrusher in fast and rammed him into the bewilderbeast's leg. It roared and turned to face them, firing a blast of ice that just missed stormfly.

Dagur flew past it's face, distracting it and Astrid fired a magnesium blast across in the other direction. The beast roared in anger again and began to follow the three riders who were leading it out to sea.

Drago was furious.

"No!  **No!** Attack the village! Leave them!" But the bewilderbeast ignored him and splashed into the sea after them.

  
  
  


Mala watched as the bewilderbeast charged away and glanced to Throk who then gestured to the riders to follow. 

They dove down and began searching.

A defender of the wing came across to them, coughing. 

"Queen mala! The infirmary! The giant stomped near it and spooked one of the dragons inside! It lit the roof on fire accidentally and we can't get the debris out the way to help them. 

"Cami!" 

"On it." 

Twilight moved into position above the frame of the roof and wrapped her claws around it, and then, with heather's guidance, gingerly lifted it off. There were points it creaked alarmingly but they kept going and then deposited the burning roof on the beach. Immediately most of the dragons burst out into the air and dispersed.

Mala and allura swooped in and allura blasted the spooked dragon with Amber. When twilight returned she lifted the dragon to safety and the others went in to grab people. 

Throk was mid search for more people when he found the great protector. It was still and unmoving but when he checked for a heartbeat he found it to be only unconscious. He checked the lava flow and noticed it was almost at the village.

"Mala! We have a problem! The lava flow has almost reached the village! If it gets any close we'll be dealing with fires and ice!" 

Mala cursed.

"Heather! Take windshear up the volcano! Use her spikes to cause an avalanche! We need to try and block its route!" Heather nodded and took off toward the mountain.

The rest of you! We need a fire break!" She commanded. "Gods, I hope the others are having better luck."

The others were not having much luck. They had rendezvoused with the riders out at sea and were fighting the giant but not doing any damage. 

Toothless rolled to avoid the dragon's sweeping tail and hiccup watched as eret rammed it again. A blast of ice nearly decapitated sleuther and barf and belch flew in for another gas attack. The gas was ignited by stormfly on a pass and hiccup had to feel impressed at how well the berkian warriors were working with their dragons. There was a yell as a tusk caught dagur and sleuther. Hiccup dove on toothless and slipped between the bewilderbeast's legs and grabbed dagur by the hand, dropping him with eret on skullcrusher. Sleuther had formed up with stormfly and Astrid and the pair began bombarding the left flank with shots.

Hiccup followed suit and stayed on skullcrusher's wing.

"Hiccup! Look!" Eret pointed to the island, now a good distance away. A huge plume of smoke was erupting from the volcano and surrounding area. 

Hiccup signalled to atali who was circling over the battle and she and umbra flew to go and help. 

"Dagur! Take sleuther and go!" Dagur whistled and sleuther took position below him, and he slid into the saddle before peeling off. 

"Everyone else, another attack, give it everything you've got!." She and eret joined stormfly and the three dipped underneath and attacked the exposed skin there. The bewilderbeast raged and lowered to a crouch in the water, nearly drowning the formation as they raced to get out from underneath. 

They split up again and did some more runs.

Astrid had to admit, even injured, hiccup and toothless owned the sky. They dipped and weaved and fired back all at the same time. Stormfly followed suit and torched a scar along the side of a dragon proof hull plate. Astrid had begun to bond with this beautiful creature and she would miss her dearly when this was all over, she wasn't ashamed to say. She glanced back to the island and wondered what was happening with snotlout and Fishlegs. 

  
  


Snotlout felt the distrust radiating from hookfang as they hovered above and empty patch of water. They watched the battle from afar, the distant flashes of light barely visible in the bright afternoon sun. On the other side of them caldera cay burned .

"Why'd you do it snotlout?" Fishlegs asked painfully. 

"I...I don't know. I thought they were evil." He struggled.

"She's your cousin." Fishlegs said mournfully.

"I know." He snapped and then softened. "that decision is tearing me up inside. I want to be free of this….this….this guilt." He swallowed. "But at the same time, I feel awful about what i did and I don't want to forget it." Hot tears pooled into his eyes, though he felt a weight had lifted from his shoulders after the confession. 

Fishlegs looked at him

"You have to do something to make you worthy of forgiveness." He said.

"Something worthy of forgiveness." He echoed.


	16. The ashes of Caldera cay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the riders accidentally accelerate drago's plans and caldera cay burns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i've shortened the story's overall length because i realised in my notes that some ideas where to basic to even become short chapters.

Out to sea the battle was not going well. The bewilderbeast's tail swept round and smashed into barf and belch, sending ruff and tuff plummeting to the ocean below.

Ruff felt the air whistling past her ears and then a fierce pain in her shoulder as someone grabbed her hand and helped her onto their dragon's back. She realized with a jolt the dragon that it was stormfly and the person who's waist she was currently holding was Astrid's. They barrel rolled and flew in close along the hull of one of the hunter sections. She saw the blast of ice just too late and it caught stormfly's tail, unbalancing them and causing them to spiral out of control. They landed in the sea with a huge splash.

Hiccup and toothless raced up through the bewilderbeast's spines and then rolled to avoid a blast of ice. A spike of pain went through her and she lost her grip in the saddle. Her foot disconnected from the riding gear and toothless shrieked in fear as they both splashed into the ocean below. Then the bewilderbeast turned and dived down into the sea.

Hiccup climbed back onto toothless and they launched back up into the air and suddenly jolted to a stop.

Hiccup frowned and checked her compass.

"What the hel? He's going the wrong way."

Eret looked at her confused.

"The only island that way…." Suddenly she paled. "Shit. Astrid get Ruffnut to barf and belch, eret go and get The others, finish up at caldera cay and then get to the edge as fast as you can!" She commanded and toothless and stormfly raced after the bewilderbeast.

Eret helped the twins back onto their dragon and headed back to the island.

They found mala there, desperately trying to block the lava flow with rocks and mud from the avalanche while cami and throk smashed trees to bits along a line to create a fire break. The inferno was burning hot and smoke was pouring into the air. A thick cloud of it passed leaving heather coughing. She flew windshear as low as she could comfortably go, trying to dislodge more rocks and soil but the earth was baked, to the point where windshear’s spines where just bouncing off. Mala was getting allura to fire blasts of amber but they just heated and shattered and the lava was seeping through the rocks. The great protector was awake but even he could not stop the lava flow as it reached the village. Houses burned and the riders desperately ferried people out of the town but the screams of pain and terror alerted them to the fact they couldn’t save them all. The ice spikes gave some relief as they melted, but giant chunks crushed houses. Ash was coming down like snow but thicker, often leaving them choking, with flakes of it collecting on their clothes. Mala finally pulled the riders back when a missile of nearly molten rock almost smashed into atali and umbra. They put down on the nearest sea stack and watched as the ash buried the fire, leaving ash clogged and charred ruins as the only remainder of the village on caldera cay. The riders then took off, headed for the edge.

Astrid wasn’t far behind hiccup, as stormfly could almost keep up with a night fury, but the girl was really pushing their dragons. She was tense, tenser than she had been when they’d been captured, tenser than when their fleet had burned and she had a huge aura of urgency around her. The dragons too, weren’t speaking but flapping faster and faster. Astrid watched as islands became less and less frequent along the horizon and astrid was about to ask where they were going when she saw it.

Twin snow-capped peaks towered above the sea on a beautiful island that was covered in lush green forests. She followed hiccup down and noticed a small town, with huts on platforms that were connected by bridges and ziplines.

“this is the edge. This is my home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, in the immortal words of one tuffnut lavern thorston, 'the tension continues to build'. this story is nearly finished and i have plans for a sequel, hence i've updated it to show as part of a series (hope you like the series tile by the way) and i was wondering, for the sequel i need to introduce some more characters, and i was thinking of making it rotbtfd but i could also find some more characters from the books. if you have a preference, please do comment and i'll go with whatever is most requested.


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